one half cup nuts – pecans, walnuts or mix of the two, although I like pecans better

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and oil a loaf bread pan.

Combine dry ingredients and mix well with wet ingredients, batter will be very stiff.

Add fruit and nuts; we don't like raisins so I use other dried fruit, as desired.

Bake about 55 to 60 minutes or until done when checked with a toothpick.

Let bread stand for ten minutes then turn out to cool almost completely.

Serve warm bread with salty butter and home made jam or cream cheese. Care to guess which I suggest? Yeah, bread is supposed to be cooled thoroughly but I don't visit that world much less live there. What's the use of baking fresh bread if you can't break the "rule" and eat it warm? No use at all, I say!

This morning I used frozen blueberries and the bread was delicious! Just a touch of sweetness, thanks to the molasses, and a lot of heft, thanks to the whole wheat and toasted wheat germ. I like a bread that's sturdy, brown and filled with goodness and this recipe fits the bill more than quite nicely. Try it and let me know what you think.By the way, if you use fresh fruit, dust the fruit with a bit of white sugar or flour. That keeps the fruit from sinking to the bottom as it bakes. This morning, the frozen blueberries were added at the last stir, into a very stiff batter and that kept them in place throughout the batter. Perhaps you've guessed, I cook by touch, taste and my eyes. I think I've been cooking so long, 45 years now as well as I enjoy reading cookbooks for pleasure, that cooking is, mostly, intuitive. Even baking which is supposed to be more "keeping to the letter of the recipe" than stove top cooking. Food is forgiving and mistakes, generally, can always be salvaged. If the above recipe hadn't worked for me, I'd have sliced and toasted it then served it with sweetened whipped cream and fresh blueberries. YUM! There's always a way...

~ my latest treasure ~

I mentioned I visited Aunt Esther last week; we always go "downtown" for lunch. After lunch, we visited the old 5 and Dime which is also now an antique shop. For years, Dave has listened to me harp on how I'd love to find an old tractor seat and turn it into a stool. Many decades ago, I had an old commercial milk bucket but, along the way, someone nipped it. Anyway, at the 5 and Dime I found the above...a tractor seat attached to an old commercial milk bucket, and, in my favorite farm colors, John Deere green and yellow! As they say, SCORE! As I say, thank you, Father; I love it!

Penny sent the following poem; does it speak to you in simple and quiet joy? It does to me!

I Have Found Such Joy

"I have found such joy in simple things;
A plain clean room , a nut-brown loaf of bread,
A cup of milk, a kettle as it sings,
The shelter of a roof above my head,
And in a leaf-laced square along a floor,
Where yellow sunlight glimmers through a door.

I have found such joys in things that fill
My quiet days: a curtain's blowing grace,
A potted plant upon my window sill,
A rose fresh-cut and placed within a vase,
A table cleared, a lamp beside a chair,
And books I long have loved beside me there."

“...when the Day of Judgment dawns and people, great and small, come marching in to receive their heavenly rewards, the Almighty will gaze upon the mere bookworms and say to Peter, 'Look, these need no reward. We have nothing to give them. They have loved reading.'”

22 comments:

Hi Sandra, The recipe sounds very tasty. We have been able to buy the best blueberries at the market lately.I love the poems/quotes you have shared today and of course, the cute photo.Have a blessed day.

Lovely post, Sandra. yummy bread! I too love to look at cookbooks but seldom use them...somtimes I think it would be fun to cook / bake one new thing a day...but then again...lol. Love your little studio...

Hello Sandra and Dave:This is most certainly what we should describe as a really 'homely' post. You have the delicious looking blueberry bread, which we should certainly enjoy eating,your wonderful vintage tractor 'stool', two charming poems and, of course, your lovely dogs in front of your very personal workplace. This speaks to us so much of the real you.

Thanks for stopping by my Ranch dressing post today. Your view is lovely, by the way, as are the poems. Wishing for that intuitive method of baking to become my own...one of these days. I'll get there someday. Blessings, ~Lisa

What joy fills my heart when I read such beautiful words. Are there scores of women who relate to these things or just a few of us who see the beauty in such simplicity. Bless you for sharing such filling thoughts. Kathy

Well, Sandra, you and I truly are kindred spirits! Though I do need to look at recipes when I bake, similar things bring us joy! I have wanted to make stools from my grandpa's milk cans for years, but the price of tractor seats has gotten so high I have given up on that idea. I love your 'find', especially in the darling John Deere colors! Score indeed!The poems are perfect and how sweet is your studio! I have my eye on my chicken house ~ but what to do with all those hens? :~DI am copying your recipe to try on a day that is less busy!Thanks for sharing it!Again, trying to be a blessing!

Dear Sandra,I am visiting you blog for the first time, and I love what I see. I thank you for the comment on the Castile soap. I do use vinegar for lots of things, but especially like Bragg's OG cider vinegar with the 'mother' for cooking.Thank you for the poems. they refreshed the soul towards contentment.It is beautiful there :)

I love your studio, so cute! I love real Brown Bread and have not had real BB since I was little and it came baked in a can-ha! You opened both ends and pushed it out. Thanks for your visit and blessing! Hugs, Kerrie

That bread sounds wonderful, and I too eat bread warm with butter. It's one of life's greatest pleasures! ;) I love that poem, I'll be printing it out for my wall. I have found such joy in simple things too!